US announces restriction on e-cigarette flavours, except menthol

Existing vape flavours include watermelon, strawberry milk, mango, cappuccino, mint, strawberry, lemonade and grape.

FILE PHOTO: Juul brand vape cartridges are pictured for sale at a shop in Atlanta
The flavour ban applies to e-cigarettes such as Juul Labs Inc products, which use disposable cartridges filled with liquid nicotine [File: Elijah Nouvelage/ Reuters]

The administration of United States President Donald Trump on Thursday finalised its enforcement policy on unauthorized flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes. The effort is designed to curb rising teenage use of vaping products. The US will still allow menthol and tobacco flavours to remain on the market.

The flavour restriction applies to e-cigarettes, such as Juul Labs Inc products, which use disposable cartridges filled with liquid nicotine and are often sold in convenience stores.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said companies have 30 days to stop the manufacture, distribution and sale of flavoured cartridge-based e-cigarettes – other than tobacco or menthol – or risk enforcement actions from the US Food and Drug Administration.

 “HHS is taking a comprehensive, aggressive approach to enforcing the law passed by Congress, under which no e-cigarettes are currently on the market legally,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.

In a statement released by HHS, the department stressed that the FDA’s “enforcement priorities are not a “ban” on flavored or cartridge-based ENDS. The FDA has already accepted and begun review of several premarket applications for flavored ENDS products through the pathway that Congress established in the Tobacco Control Act.”

“The United States has never seen an epidemic of substance use arise as quickly as our current epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes,” Azar added.

Source: Reuters